Yankees Tried to Trade for Russell Martin Past 3 Years

Cashman said that Russ Martin is “Thuman-like.” The Yankees tried to trade for him the past 3 yrs. That would have been interesting.

I was certainly skeptical of Russell Martin at first. He had two down seasons, was coming off of two surgeries, and the Yankees had Jesus Montero waiting in the wings. Despite all of that Martin has really been a solid player for the Yankees. After last night’s game Martin is hitting .333 with a 1.132 OPS and has provided good defense and game calling while playing in 16 of 17 games so far.

It’s still very early though and I am very resistant to calling him “Thurman-like” but it has been a good start. I wonder if it has been the change in scenery, maturity, or if he’s finally healthy. If it was just the change of scenery it becomes interesting to think about what the Yankees would have looked like if Brian Cashman had managed to land Martin in one of his numerous trade attempts. For one thing, we wouldn’t have had to suffer through the year of Nick Johnson.

In the end it worked out though, the Yankees won the series in 2009 and Martin probably doesn’t put the 2010 Yankees, who had numerous pitching issues, over the top. They got him last offseason as a free agent and didn’t lose a single prospect. He’s here now and let’s hope he continues to play well an

Russell Martin has played well above Munson levels. He has been Mantle-like. Of course, it's extremely doubtful that he'll keep up this pace but there's no doubt that he has been SUPERB thus far. I've liked this signing since day 1 but I believe he is a free agent after this year which could cause all sorts of problems.

Thanks for the heads up. That's really good news. If he plays well this year, it might even be ideal if they could sign him to a 2-3 year extension as Montero could be used as the full time DH part time Catcher once Posada rides off into the sunset.